My Idiot’s Guide to Potty Training

My Idiot’s Guide to Potty Training

My 2-year-old Tsofia is now potty-trained. And I wanted to share my ridiculously simply approach to potty training which I found to be incredibly quick and effective as well…

This approach requires 3 ingredients:

1. A toddler ready to be potty trained (a good sign that toddlers are ready to be potty trained is when they start taking off their diapers or won’t let you put diapers on them or won’t let you take off their diapers. In other words, out of the blue they are acting strange in relation to their diapers).

2. A package of igloos (I use igloos, or Israeli ice pops like the ones in the photo above, though any highly-desired treat or prize will do)

3. Older children

In the past, I have potty trained my toddlers by giving them a treat every time they make in the potty. But this time around, I changed the rules a bit, and this change in rules meant that the potty training took at least HALF the time as usual, and it meant that my other kids basically did the potty training for me…

The revolutionary change in rules was this: This time I gave ALL of my children a treat every time Tsofia made in the potty.

And this change in rules meant that all of my children were highly motivated to get Tsofia to go in the potty, so they would frequently encourage her and remind her to go to the potty. My 5-year-old, Yoel, was especially highly motivated.

Happy potty training, JewishMOM!

11 comments

  1. WOW this comes at a good time as im potty training my twins and my kids also always ask for a treat when the twins get one. I think ill use your tip on giving the older kids a treat too. Thanks for the idea.

  2. so helpful! my daughter is 3, and i still dont think she’s ready, or maybe i’m not ready…

  3. Hadassah

    Mazal tov on Tzofia’s birthday. Congratulations on her potty training. There is a window of opportunity at around 2 years old for training that many people in the USA miss thinking that their child is too young. When they get older they tend to be less anxious to please and less inclined to cooperate! I like that they all participated! great for achdus!

  4. wow, nice idea. And thanks Hadassah, my son will be 2 b’ezrat Hashem in a month and Chana, what you’re saying about the being weird about a diaper thing is so true with him. Maybe I should go for it? I’m so nervous, I was planning on waiting till around 2 1/2 at least.

    • JewishMom

      I have personally found with all my kids, without exception, that the perfect time to potty train them is the weeks leading up to their second birthday. This is exactly when they start acting weird about their diapers, and potty training has always gone smoothly then. I’m not saying this as a rule for all toddlers, of course. I assume there are kids who are ready at different ages, but for me that has worked well as an age.

  5. wow, chana jenny, can i come over and help potty train your DD? I LOVE igloos!!

  6. LOVE IT!!

  7. That is genius! I’ll try that please G-d with my son with the time comes (there’s time). But maybe you can explain how to train a boy (after 3 girls??? No clue.) Thanks.

    • let the girls do it. and with igloos as incentive for all, they’ll figure something out fast enough… two of my boys are 15 years apart, with 5 girls in between. believe me, those sisters figured it out with their baby brother, so your daughters will too!

  8. You are a genius. And have good timing–we’re training Boaz. This tweak really moved things along this weekend (we did it with pretzels).

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